New Jersey Linebacker Building Genuine Relationship with Maryland
Camden (NJ) outside linebacker Nyair Graham will hit the field on Friday for a scrimmage ahead of next weekend’s season-opener. It’s been a long offseason for prospects around the country as they’ve navigated through restrictions due to COVID-19, but for Graham, he’s ready to put it all together on the field for a strong junior year.
“I’m just most excited to play with my teammates and just go undefeated, that’s the whole goal,” Graham told All Terrapins. “Just learning what went wrong last year and applying it to this year and I want to be a leader this year as a junior so I want to make sure things go the way they’re supposed to.” His personal goal for the season. “I want to lead the team in tackling and put out more tape for college coaches out there.”
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound linebacker already holds a double-digit offer sheet with Maryland, Syracuse, Michigan State, Texas A&M and Penn State among the early schools to pull the trigger. The known commodity has enjoyed building relationships with coaches, but the lack of spring evaluation period provides more motivation to compile a strong junior tape.
“Still talking to the same schools that I got offered by, talking to a couple new schools like Nebraska, Akron, ECU, Boston College so those schools have kept in touch with me. That could be new offers so just want to see more film, but there’s a lot of teams talking to me right now just want to see more film.”
Maryland cornerbacks coach Henry Baker has built an early relationship as he leads the Terps’ efforts in New Jersey while head coach Mike Locksley connected with the defensive target.
“They’ve been consistent, they’ll talk to me all the time. I talked to the head coach at Maryland the other day, second time, just been consistent with showing me love. They want me to get up to campus and stuff like that.” While it’s early, Graham sees a genuine relationship forming with the Terps’ staff. “Definitely like real upstanding guys. They tell me the truth and tell me what it is, they don’t sell me on dreams or tell me about other schools. Even if I don’t go to Maryland, they still want me to choose wisely not just for one reason. They really want me there and it’s all love.”
Boston College has built on an early summer offer to acclimate himself to the Eagles’ staff. “I talk to linebacker coach [Sean] Duggan, really the whole staff. I was able to talk to the whole staff, pass the phone around the room and learned a little bit about Boston College.” Meanwhile, Syracuse has established a strong relationship with Graham early as he already knows he’s a top target for the Orange.
“I talk to the head coach too. When I visit, I was one of the few kids to talk to the head coach. Syracuse been big on me since the beginning, that was one of my first offers.”
Graham finished with 49 tackles, including ten against Delsea, and one forced fumble as a sophomore.
